This is a post from our WordofMouth.org project. Check it out for more great word of mouth marketing tips like this every day. Your fans love to see how their efforts impact your business. They love to know when their collective ideas make your business better, to see how many people that they introduced to […]

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Here to inspire you with their big dream this Turkey Day are two amazing kids from Brooklyn. Unlocking The Truth – Malcolm Brickhouse & Jarad Dawkins from The Avant/Garde Diaries on Vimeo. We’ll get back to our normal programming on Monday.

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Good service or a good product doesn’t get you word of mouth. That’s the minimum you’re required to do. Delivering the basics is like brushing your teeth: You’re expected to do it You lose friends if you don’t You don’t get extra credit for doing it

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Over-emailing your customer list is always, always bad marketing. There is absolutely no reason to think your customers want to get a special offer every day. When you over-mail, you just turn happy customers who would be happy to hear from you occasionally into annoyed ex-customers. So why do marketers do it? Because of a fundamental […]

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When you test ideas, it’s always good. The moment you do a test, you’re winning — you’re learning something new, you’re finding a better way, or you’re avoiding a mistake. There’s no such thing as a “failed” test. Tests aren’t Pass vs. Fail. Tests are A vs. B. You always learn something about A and […]

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Here’s a guest post BJ Emerson, VP of Technology at Tasti D-Lite and co-author of The Tasti D-Lite Way: Social Media Marketing Lessons for Building Loyalty and a Brand Customers Crave, wrote for our WordofMouth.org project. Check it out for more great word of mouth marketing tips like this every day. Competing online today means […]

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The CAN-SPAM law says your have 10 days to remove someone from an email list. The DON’T-PISS-OFF-YOUR-CUSTOMERS law says that’s nonsense and rude. Whoever permitted this screen to be written needs to focus on customer happiness before legal compliance:

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[Welcome back to the Damn, I Wish I’d Thought of That! newsletter. This is text of the great issue all of our email subscribers just received. Sign yourself up using the handy form on the right.] Remarkable companies know that even the smallest stuff has an opportunity for improvement — an opportunity to turn something ordinary, standard, […]

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Sad story #1: Tried to buy insurance from a broker that I really like. It would have lead to a lot of other business for them. But some IT guy in their office who is stuck in 1998 set a limit on the size of email attachments they can receive. So I can’t return the […]

I taught word of mouth marketing at Northwestern University and internet entrepreneurship at the Wharton School of Business. I’m a serial entrepreneur who founded and advises startups and nonprofits. And I’m a rabid purist on the topic of marketing ethics.

About This Blog

"Damn, I Wish I'd Thought of That!" is full of unusually useful ideas borrowed from the smartest marketers. Good marketing is more about brains than bucks. The best business ideas are easy to do, inexpensive, simple, and fun. Learn to simplify your business, earn word of mouth, and thrill your customers.